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the doj is asking a judge in the Google search Monopoly case to force the company to sell its Chrome browser as
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part of the remedy Chrome has about 67% of the global market and could go for as
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much as 20 billion According to some estimates the government also wants to stop Google from getting into paid
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agreements with apple and others to be the default search engine on phones and browsers uh the doj stopped short of
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requesting a full divesture of Android Google called The doj Proposal extreme and is set to file its own Suggestions
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by December 20th remedy hearings will be held in April and the judge judges expected to rule over the summer I I
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know you know all these all these uh agencies are sort of waiting for what happens with Trump although you just
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never know because he's had some anti- Google um statements and everything else and there'll be a new head of antitrust
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at the justice department it's not clear who that's going to be um what do you what do you think of this remedy it
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seems like an unusual thing Tech writer John grber noted Chrome and Android are not Standalone businesses they're
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appendages to Google it's like saying I have to sell my left foot it's very valuable to me but of no value to anyone
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else um and if a buyer of chrome is a company like open a or Microsoft could they be accused of creating as you just
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you know another Monopoly with this purchase I like this the potential remedies were a fine you can't come up
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with fines big enough uh some sort of administrator from the government bureaucrat that had to they got to go
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into any meeting and tell them why they shouldn't do something which they basically can ignore stick the stick the
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fat ugly weird kid in the corner and then finally a breakup so I I was happy to see this now whether it holds or not
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but I I'm not sure I agree with the writer because because Chrome you know it has about 2/3 Global share I think of
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the browser Market that's so much attention um that's so much attention that a lot of different people could
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monetize that so it would have no shortage of biders it would it would um uh immediately stop this default uh you
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know steering everyone towards their search engine it'd be more of a competition so I like this I think I
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generally find that the FDC and the doj and this is because they bring in a lot of my colleagues from Business Schools
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are pretty smart about trying to come up with solutions that grow the total Market uh so I I like this I hope it
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goes I don't know it'll hold yeah you know there's so much uncertainty because as I said caner is will be leaving John
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caner and Lea Khan's tenure may be over or maybe not it's very unclear you might
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get someone like Brandon Carr who's making a grab for power at the FCC of which didn't have but may be trying to
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do so um there's all kinds of uncertainty on who's going to be able to run this and then who is going to be the
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antitrust head and it is all in the hands of a single judge um who's who which then can be appealed Etc and the
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government can stop trying right The Government Can Go a different direction depending um you know it'll be
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interesting because Sundar Pai the head of alphabet was on the phone with Trump and of course guess who was on the phone
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with him there's the whole Elon element Elon was on a phone call with the CEO of
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alphabet with Trump I mean there's all these different competing power centers uh happening here
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so I I agree with you I think this something should be cleaved off of these companies that's to me the only the key
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question is where was Omar Rosa I want her back she would she actually seems quite credible now no she does I can't
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believe it but she is you're right I mean it'll be interesting to see what the remedy is but I think the only
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remedy is the start to breaking up of parts of their businesses and then creating new vibrant businesses from
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them right it just seems healthier in so many ways a Fine's not going to work a threatening with prison's not going to
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work you know it's just they should just cut them up and create new businesses and see what could be made I mean having
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67% of the global market and it does it does help their other business I can't tell you how many times I open Chrome
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and it says don't you want to make this your default browser right I I unsign out from Google because it's constantly
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trying to get me sucked into their system for no good reason so um it seems would rather it be owned by more people
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that's my feel search is arguably finished I bet on a gross dollar volume basis search maybe the biggest business
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in the world it's 150 I think it's like a quarter of a trillion dollar business but I bet it's got gross margins of 80
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or 90 points and that makes even the iPhone look like a distant not not a great business so and essentially all of
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this accrets to one player and if you didn't have this incredible data advantage of looking what everyone is
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doing on the internet two-thirds of the time and then be able to steer them towards your search engine and then
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extract all sorts of payments to be the default you would just have a lot more all of a sudden the biggest Market in
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the world wouldn't be a monopoly which would ultimately lower rents on everyone that has to pay the to that's right and
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search would be better as a product search and they'd be forced to innovate they might who knows someone might pop
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up and say this is search that is uh not going to not going to give this information more reach this is we're not
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going to let computers create content I had Eric Schmidt on and he said something I thought was really
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insightful he this is a former just for people who know the former Google head former alphabet yeah yeah who I think he
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never was alphabet but Google but go ahead oh you're right excuse me um but he said something really interesting he
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said humans should have absolutely very strong First Amendment Free Speech rights but he said computers should not
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and that really struck me as insightful because I think a lot of the misinformation a lot of the incendiary
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cont that polarizes us is not generated by a human and I thought that was really
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an interesting place to start around all of this but back to breakups in anti trust ask any Economist or ask any
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lawyer trying to fight against this what breakup in US history did not end up being a good idea every time we have
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broken up companies you end up with more powerful more valuable companies you end
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up with more choice you end up with lower rents you end up with more Innovation the only person that loses is
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the person who has the controlling shareholders or the super voting majority shares who want to sit on the
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Iron Throne of not just Westeros but all Seven Realms but everybody else every other stakeholder the community the tax
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base emplo uh employees they then have more companies vying to rent their labor it's always better it's always better
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look at what's happening even over in social media Blue Sky that's that choice that's you know whether you like threads
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or not that's that choice it feels so much people get text to me Blue Sky stuff yeah everyone's moving over there but
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it's different they have a different like this is how our place is going to be it's not going to be mean and it's
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not like that's the whole point of different things is you get to choose what you want and that's the true free
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speech that's my feeling is you get to you know everyone's like you have to be you know Elon and his gang are pushing
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like you have to be on Twitter like no I don't I can do whatever I want and if I want to be in a bubble great if
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I don't great like the ability to make and choose your own venture to me is the the is freedom that's my feeling